Pages tagged "Pesticide companies"

The world’s largest pesticide companies are spending One Million Dollars a Day to confuse California voters about Proposition 37 -- a simple label that will give us the right to know what's in our food.

A Million Dollars a Day in TV ads can buy lots of confusion, but it can't buy facts. Here are the facts about Prop 37:

No cost to consumers: Adding a few words to labels costs nothing. Labeling didn’t raise costs in 50 other countries and won’t raise costs here. It won’t add red tape or bureaucracy either, and the only independent study on Prop 37 confirms these facts. Read the Truth about Cost.

No incentives for lawsuits: With noincentives for lawyers to sue, the opposition's stories about "shakedown lawsuits" make no sense whatsoever. Prop 37 is straightforward and easy for businesses to follow; there will be no need for lawsuits. Companies will label for genetic engineering just like they label calories and fat. Retailers have special protections under the law. Read the Truth about Lawsuits.

Exemptions are common sense: Prop 37 exempts products that have no ingredient labels, such as restaurant food and alcohol. But it will cover meat from genetically engineered animals. The opposition is trying to confuse voters about exemptions -- and to do it, they are running ads featuring a fringe radical scientist who think nuclear radiation is good for our health -- all because they don’t want to label genetically engineered foods. Read the Truth about Exemptions.

California farmers are FOR Prop 37: Thousands of California farmers, all the leading businesses in the natural and sustainable food sector, and all the leading labor groups -- United Farm Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers, and California Labor Federation -- are saying YES ON 37.

As Californians prepare to vote on a proposition to label genetically engineered foods, a new peer-reviewed study reveals that genetically engineered crops have increased pesticide use by hundreds of millions of pounds. The problem will intensify if the new round of GMO crops is approved, as Reuters reported today.

“This study raises serious questions about whether we want to drown our crops in pesticides and feed them to our children,” said Yes on 37 campaign manager Gary Ruskin. “As we see from the data, GMOs are a fantastic boon for the pesticide industry. That’s why the world’s largest pesticide companies have spent nearly $20 million to defeat Proposition 37 and our right to know what’s in our food.”

By Gary Ruskin -- The results are in from the first-ever peer-reviewed long-term health study of the most common type of genetically engineered corn – and they are worrying. For two years, researchers fed rats a diet of genetically engineered corn that is common in the US food supply, and found massive mammary tumors, kidney and liver damage, and premature death. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Food and Chemical Toxicology.

These findings underscore the importance of giving California families the right to know whether our food has been genetically engineered in a laboratory.

Proposition 37 – which would label genetically engineered foods in California – is the answer for everyone who wants the right to know what’s in their food. And it is the best recourse available for those of us who do not wish to be subjects in a giant science experiment conducted by Monsanto and the other pesticide giants that are bankrolling the No on 37 campaign. (Recent contributions have topped $32 million, more than half from Monsanto and the big pesticide companies.)

This is the food fight of our lives. Prop 37 is our best chance to bring fairness and transparency to our food system. Jointhe Yes on 37 California Right to Know campaign.

Sacramento, Calif. -- Monsanto just gave an additional $2.89 million to defeat Proposition 37, which would require labeling of genetically engineered foods in California. Monsanto’s total contribution against Proposition 37 now stands at $7.1 million, according to campaign finance disclosure records filed with the California Secretary of State.

Other major pesticide companies also just made major additional contributions to defeat Proposition 37, including DuPont ($874,800), Dow AgroSciences ($815,200), Bayer CropScience ($381,600), BASF Plant Science ($357,700) and Syngenta ($178,700).

“Monsanto wants to buy this election so they can keep hiding what’s really in our food,” said Gary Ruskin, campaign manager of the Yes on Proposition 37 campaign. “They are on the losing side of history. Californians want the right to know what’s in our food, and we will win it.”

The “Big 6” pesticide firms (Monsanto, DuPont, Bayer, Dow, BASF and Syngenta) have contributed $19 million of the $32 million that the No on 37 campaign has raised.

SACRAMENTO -- Major bio-tech companies and manufacturers of household food products, including Campbell Soup, General Mills and Coca-Cola, have pumped almost $10 million into the campaign to defeat Proposition 37, the November statewide ballot initiative to require labels for genetically engineered crops and processed food products.

The California Secretary of State's office reported that a members of the Coalition Against the Deceptive Food Labeling Scheme, sponsored by farmers and food producers, had contributed $9.98 million since the close of the Jan. 1-June 30 reporting period.